Mumbai North is a collection black and white - photographs taken 15,000 ft above sea level between December 2014 and November 2015 of Mumbai's suburbs by photographer Robert D Stephens.
After the success of his two previous exhibitions, 'Mumbai Articles' (2014) and 'Madras Transit' (Aug 2015) were, Stephens offers an alternate lens into the urban geography, landscape and sprawl of the city's suburbs with Mumbai North.
One of the unique aspects of this photograph is that it is accompanied by a record of air pollution levels on the corresponding day, as measured by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board as well as extracts from antiquarian books related to Mumbai, dating back to the late 1800s.
Mahim Business Centre
March 2015
SO2 - 10 ug / m3
NOx - 111 ug / m3
RSPM ??? 110 ug / m3
"With regard to establishing a second business centre at Mahim the main disadvantages are:
a.) The area on which it is to be located is wedged between two existing built-up areas and consequently expansion to meet the needs of a growing city would be impossible. (Maximum area available is 0.7 sq. miles only).
b.) Clearly the Mahim Centre can only be developed as a centre of secondary importance subsidiary to the main centre in the South. Congestion in the Southern part of the island would continue to increase.
c.) There would necessarily be a heavy exchange of traffic between this Centre and the Fort area and because the new Centre lieson the North-South axis of the island this would only add to and aggravate the difficulty of existing North-South traffic.
Bombay, Planning and Dreaming
Marg
Ed. Mulk Raj Anand
June 1965
Page 49
17. Juhu Anthills
April 2015
SO2 - 9 ug / m3
NOx - 102 ug / m3
RSPM ??? 73 ug / m3
"We do not yet know the full implications of the modern trends of urban development; nor can we envisage to-day the impact of new means and manner of communications with automobile, telephone, television, and electronic computer nullifying our earlier calculations of the economies of propinquity and concentration. We do not know enough of the psychology of man to predict how long he will tolerate living in beehives. There is enough experience to indicate that young children dislike being couped up into high flats; they instinctively love and crave for contact with the soil, grass, flowers and trees......What are we then trying to achieve by developing Bombay into little better than an Ant-hill of 80 Lakhs?"
Bombay, Planning and Dreaming
Marg
Ed. Mulk Raj Anand
June 1965
Page viii - ix
Robert D. Stephens is a Principal at RMA Architects, Mumbai. His passions include the art of buildingand constructing beauty through visual, literary, and cinematic imagery. In 2013 he co-produced a feature film with India's first You Tube star, Wilbur Sargunaraj, entitled "Simple Superstar".
About Mumbai North
Aerial Photographs of Mumbai's Suburbs by Robert D. Stephens
Click links below to see his other collections:
Mumbai Articles Madras Transit After the success of Mumbai Articles, Stephen's contemporary black and white, aerial photographs of Mumbai city, photographer Robert D Stephens turns his attentions to the surburbs of Mumbai. This January, he brings us Mumbai North, an urban portrait collection of suburban geography, featuring black and white photographs taken 15,000 ft above sea level between December 2014 and November 2015. Suburbs documented range from Nalasopara to Bhiwandi, Vikhroli to Aarey Colony, Bandra to Kandivali, and more.